Fodor's Expert Review Boulder Bank

A defining Nelson landscape feature is the 13-km (8-mile) natural stone bank, built from the eroding Mackay Cliffs farther north along the coast. The sheltered harbor the bank created is essentially the reason the region was first settled by Māori. Later, an entry was cut through the boulders to allow larger ships into the harbor. A lighthouse on the Boulder Bank guided ships from the 1860s until the 1980s. As you look across from the Nelson waterfront consider that, for 27 years, a lighthouse keeper, his wife, and 10 children lived there on the isolated bank. Access today is via Boulder Bank Road off Atawhai Drive. It is a two- to three-hour walk each way.